Hello all, I am new here. Just found your site. I am the proud owner of a 1998 Accord EX 6-cyl with 230,000 miles. I should add, trouble free miles. This car has always been rock solid. To date, the engine seems sound and strong without burning oil nor leaking oil. But, in the past few months the auto transmission has started slipping when moving through the gears. I have been lucky with it, because i neglected even a transmission fluid change until past 100K miles. Changed regularly since then. Since it started slipping a bit, I had ithe fluid changed at a local trans shop and it seemed to smooth out for a few weeks but now back to slipping. It is not severe, but definately noticeable especially at low acceleration on modest inclines. I have delt with the shop with other vehicles and they are good... and honest. They told me when they did the fluid change that if the fluid change did not help, they could rebuild the transmission for (if my memory serves me) $1,400-$1,800.
Should I drive it to failure then do the rebuid?
Any additives to prolong the life?
How big a job is the trans rebuild?
Is it a standard thing (take this chunk o' stuff out and put in new) or does each shop do it differently?
AND THE BIGGIE: Is it even worth it for an accord with 230K miles on it? I am leaning toward "yes", since it would not take long to hit $1,800 with new car payments.
Thanks for your advise... and great site!
BFA

 

The 98-02 transmissions were known to fail way earlier than 230K miles, so consider yourself lucky.

With an Accord with that many miles, it is probably not worth it in the financial sense, because of the difference in resale valve of broken vs repaired transmission.

On the other hand, if you rebuild it, then drive it for only one more year, you will save money on a car payment for a newer car. I would find out what kind of warranty they will give you on the repair (years and mileage), before making a decision.

 

If the car is in good shape and mechanically sound i would have it rebuild. It will be way cheaper than a new car payment. 98-02 4sp Honda Accord tranny has common problems with differential and bearings in the 4 cyl, torque converter failure in the V6 and diff bearings also. Not hard to rebuild them for a rebuilder of course, usually they're straight forward for rebuild, must be carefull with the valve body though, since there are a few valve bodies in the Honda, and they're in side not like any other make, which if you have a sticky valve, you can easily drop the pan down and pull out the valve body no big deal. Hondas built the valve bodies inside, so if you have a sticky valve, you will have to pull the tranny out of the car to redo the whole thing over again.
The 1st tranny lasted you over 200k, that means that you were not abusive to the car. The next one should still last you a long time.